Category: March 2017

According to the financial media "Big Oil is back” after today's stronger-than-expected earnings reports from Exxon Mobil and Chevron. Well, if you've been reading my Forbes columns, you would know that XOM and CVX never left, but to say today's results were powered by "Big Oil" is a misnomer. In fact, those results were really driven by the long-term--and I believe sustainable--increase in the price of natural gas. As of this writing, West Texas Intermediate crude prices are hovering just…

The shale boom has not gone unnoticed by refiners, as two companies are looking to Texas to join some of the biggest plays in the United States. MMEX Resources (ticker: MMEX) and Raven Petroleum both have recently announced their intentions to build refineries in Texas to take advantage of the shale oil production boom. On March 7, MMEX Resources announced plans to build a 50,000 BOPD crude oil refinery in Pecos County. The facility will cost about $450 million, cover…

Texas drillers pumped more crude and service companies expanded payrolls faster in the first quarter, the Dallas Fed said Wednesday, the latest sign the industry is emerging from a two-year downturn. The acceleration in drilling and oil field hiring marks a vast improvement for the Texas oil industry. This time last year, U.S. oil prices dove to the lowest point in more than a dozen years, and the collapse cost the state more than 100,000 oil and gas jobs. Now,…

Horizontal drilling in the Permian Basin is creating a new kind of swap meet. Working with fresh technology that lets producers drill longer wells than ever before, companies such as Pioneer Natural Resources Co., Parsley Energy Inc. and Double Eagle Energy Permian LLC are increasingly haggling with other producers for slivers of land that allow them to extend the reach of their drilling with hardly any acquisition costs. Prices for Permian drilling rights can run as high as $60,000 an…

"[The Haynesville] was largely written off by industry two to three years ago, but it has reemerged stronger than ever,” Doug Lawler, CEO, Chesapeake As an aging, dry, but nowhere near dead, natural gas titan in Northwest Louisiana and Eastern Texas, the Haynesville is our third largest shale play, now yielding around 6.3 Bcf/d and potentially holding nearly 500 trillion cubic feet of gas (here). With only a few oil-directed rigs, the Haynesville accounts for less than 1% of U.S. shale oil production, but 13%…

OPEC officials on Sunday urged member nations to cut their oil production in line with an agreement last year, warning that the petroleum market would remain depressed if they didn’t. Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, the 13-nation oil cartel that controls a third of global production, need to take compliance with a cut of 1.2 million barrels a day “very seriously,” said Kuwaiti Oil Minister Issam A. Almarzooq, chairman of the group’s committee overseeing compliance. “More…

Oil prices rose on Tuesday thanks to a weakened dollar, supply disruption in Libya and the latest comments from officials suggesting OPEC could extend its deal cutting global production. But crude was weighed down by a resurgence in U.S. shale oil production and the expectation that inventories in the country would once again build, illustrating the persistent global supply overhang that has depressed prices for three years. Prices for front-month Brent crude futures LCOc1, the international benchmark for oil, gained…

March 27 (UPI) -- Gains in the energy sector are spilling over into other parts of the economy, with manufacturing getting some secondary support, a Texas economist said. Keith R. Phillips, a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, said job growth is expected to move above the long-term average of 2.1 percent for 2017, against a 1.7 percent gain last year. "Improvement in the energy sector is helping manufacturers that sell to this industry, and some weakening…

A trio of Houston-based private-equity funds is sifting through the oil industry with a view to potentially reaching $4 billion of investments after the market crash created some bargains. Argus Energy Managers, made up of three firms that invest in smaller explorers and service providers, expects to end the year with combined funds north of $2 billion and possibly double that within the next five years, Charles Cherington, co-founder of Argus, said Monday in a phone interview. The funds, which…

Crude prices have rebounded significantly after falling to 13-year lows of around $26 a barrel in February 2016. Crude prices are expected to continue following that path -- even if it’s not a straight line -- in 2017, according to Stratas Advisors, a Hart Energy company. John Paisie, Stratas’ executive vice president, told those gathered Wednesday at Midland Country Club for Hart Energy’s Special Briefing: Permian Outlook, that prices should end the year at about $57 a barrel. But there…